"Am I to understand," said Mr. Rugge, in a whisper, when Waife had drawn
him to the farthest end of the inner room, with the bed-curtains between
their position and the door, deadening the sound of their voices,--"am I
to understand that, after my taking you and that child to my theatre out
of charity, and at your own request, you are going to quit me without
warning,--French leave; is that British conduct?"

"Mr. Rugge," replied Waife, deprecatingly, "I have no engagement with you
beyond an experimental trial. We were free on both sides for three
months,--you to dismiss us any day, we to leave you. The experiment does
not please its: we thank you and depart."

RUGGE.--"That is not the truth. I said I was free to dismiss you both,
if the child did not suit. You, poor helpless creature, could be of no
use. But I never heard you say you were to be free too. Stands to
reason not! Put my engage ments at a Waife's mercy! I, Lorenzo Rugge!
--stuff! But I am a just man, and a liberal man, and if you think you
ought to have a higher salary, if this ungrateful proceeding is only, as
I take it, a strike for wages, I will meet you. Juliet Araminta does
play better than I could have supposed; and I'll conclude an engagement
on good terms, as we were to have done if the experiment answered, for
three years." Waife shook his head. "You are very good, Mr. Rugge, but
it is not a strike. My little girl does not like the life at any price;
and, since she supports me, I am bound to please her. Besides," said the
actor, with a stiffer manner, "you have broken faith with me. It was
fully understood that I was to appear no more on your stage; all my task
was to advise with you in the performances, remodel the plays, help in
the stage-management; and you took advantage of my penury, and, when I
asked for a small advance, insisted on forcing these relics of what I was
upon the public pity. Enough: we part. I bear no malice."